So far my only exposure to anything east coast has been limited to New York City (for a day), Ohio from the empeg meets, and a brief trip to Ft. Lauderdale. And I'd like to change that.

I'm not sure of the exact timeframe yet, but I'm pondering a road trip on the motorcycle. This trip would be an extensive one, possibly up to 2 months in length. And likely to happen late summer, depends on a few factors.

I'm looking through some older threads for ideas, especially one from TigerJimmy about a related long motorcycle trip.

DC is on the list, as is a stop around Raleigh for family. Probably New York again, for both the city for a little bit, and some family up in the northern part of the state. Outside of that, nothing real specific, though I figure some time will be spent near US 129 along the Tennessee/North Carolina border.

Charleston, SC is a fun historical city. It's a lot like New Orleans, but less run down. Historic Wilmington, NC is similar.

You should definitely check out the different types of barbecue from Georgia to Virginia — mostly North and South Carolina's.

Raleigh has a nice art museum, if that sort of thing interests you. There's a turn-of-the-century carousel in one of our parks.

Um, I'm kinda drawing a blank right now. I'll get back to you.

Also, Ohio is hardly the East Coast.

You can comfortably see Ohio in an afternoon as you drive through it at 55MPH - no need to stop. Unless you want to go to Cedar Point that is. 2 days is more than enough at the amusement park.

Maine is worth a visit. New York City is worth multiple visits. Same with Boston. DC 1 to 2 days tops unless you are going to stay inside museums all day, in which case you may need additional days.

Yeah, screwed up on my wording, should have said anything east of the Mississippi river.

St Augustine, FL to Savannah, GA. Then to Charleston, SC. Cedar Island Ferry to Okracoke Island. Stay overnight in Okracoke village, either camping, or at a B&B. Then catch the ferry to Hattaras Island and drive it all the way up. Work your way over to Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Newport News area then to Yorktown and Williamsburg. Hit Richmond, Fredericksburg and DC. Hang at Baltimore's inner harbor. Hit Ocean City if you like the beach. Check out Lancaster County, PA (Amish country). Go to Gettysburg, then Philadelphia. Stop in Hershey. On to New York, Boston and Montreal. Check the botanical gardens in Montreal. From there to Niagara falls. Go to Pittsburgh. Catch the Blue ridge Parkway and ride it to Asheville. Work your way down to Atlanta, then New Orleans. That's probably the route I'd take.

Oh, and like Bitt said, eat lots of barbecue in the south. It changes a bit everywhere you go. Find out where the "good ol' boys" eat barbecue or look for a crowded lot with lots of pickup trucks. Eat there.

Colonial Williamsburg would make my list. So would the Blue Ridge Parkway. Boston is a fantastic historical city.

But if you're going to do it via motorcycle, you absolutely MUST ride the "Dragon's Tail", which is US 129 on the Tennessee/NC border, then ride the best motorcycling roads in the entire world through western NC toward Cherokee, which is the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Ride this north the entire way (spectacular) and then on Skyline Drive, which ends at Front Royal, just west of DC. Then pop over to DC and see the Smithsonian Air & Space, etc.

Where will you be starting from?

Jim

Starting point will be Austin, TX. The Dragon's tail is on the list, for a non weekend day to avoid the crowds on it. Looking forward to some proper mountain curvy roads again.

And thanks John for the suggestions. Will probably be building a map with lots of basic waypoints and see what the routes would look like. May just have a compass up to pay attention to most of the day, switching to GPS only when it's time to find the end point for a day. This worked well for me in the past.

I'll have to get back to you on this, Tom. I can offer some possible things to see in DC (the number of days depends on what you want to do).

I agree with Jim on Skyline Drive. People around here like to just drive along that thing on any average weekend.

*edit*
BTW, I hope you like heat and humidity!

Yeah. Wait until at least mid-September.

If you feel like venturing North, then you're always welcome to spend a few nights with us here in Ottawa. Lots to see and do, and close to Montreal and New England.

The same offer goes for any others here that I've previously met F2F.

Cheers

if you find yourself in pittsburgh we can probably put you up for a few days.

Baltimore's Inner Harbor is great. I always end up at Tir Na Nog when I go up to Aberdeen (which is a lot).

If you like museums, you could spend a few days in DC alone. Hell, you could spend a few days going through the Smithsonians (my favorite is Air & Space - shocking, I know). Arlington National Cemetery (especially if you see the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknowns) and the National Mall are awe inspiring.

Boston is a great city to hang out in. Maine is absolutely gorgeous. Philly has some cool museums.

The right coast is full of places to visit, you really can't go wrong doing a trip like that.

Still slowly planning this out. Probably targeting mid to late September for the departure, with 2 months on the road. Mark, I'll probably take you up on your offer, as long as I can find my passport. I figure heading mostly north at the start of the trip should keep me in decent weather, then head more south towards the later part of the trip as it cools down.

Reddit has been a handy resource for tips about this style of trip, with a few people recently reporting back after similar adventures. Cost wise, it's probably going to come in cheaper then I thought so 2 months is definitely viable.

One of these weekends I'm going to get a map up with the points of interest marked out, and can add more as suggestions come in.

Peachy. Keep in mind it normally starts cooling off here by late September, and the leaves are normally all down by mid October.

Cheers

Mid-October can have snow, too, though it's generally rare. Halloween costumes are generally purchased large enough to fit over a parka.

If you're the outdoors type, Gatineau Park is well worth the visit while you're in Ottawa. It's even better if you can scrounge up a mountain bike. I sure miss having trails like that within riding distance.

If Nashua NH is along your route let me know, I'll treat you to lunch or dinner depending on how things work out, and if time and interests permits a lab tour.

Tom, I'd love to meet up when/if you're in the DC area. I would offer a place to crash, but honestly I'm not sure if we'll have a place of our own at that point! (we signed a contract to sell our house, settlement is Sept 28, and we may be staying with family after that)

If we have a place for you to crash, I'd love to have you stay with us. We can debate all these Apple issues in person

But seriously, Virginia is gorgeous in the fall. Autumn is easily my favorite season, probably because of how great it is here. My wife and I basically plan out a set of "falltivities," and announce them for any friends interested in attending. These things usually involve corn mazes, a haunted forest, apple picking, etc. Great stuff.

As for temperatures during that time, it's seriously anyone's guess. Our area is crazy with weather, and sometimes it's 80 in mid-October, but other times it's 40. Either way it's a great time of year, and I really hope you enjoy it here and everywhere else you go on your trip. Please let me know if I can help in any way.

And I'd be happy for you to stay with us in Raleigh, but since you have family in Cary, you probably don't need that.

Definitely up for at least meeting with any of the empeg folks here. And I appreciate the offers for more places to stay. Didn't get to the map this last weekend, but likely this weekend I'll plot out the places mentioned here and elsewhere to see how it looks.

I did finish up my first video from the GoPro, should be fun to use this during the trip. The ride was initially going to be just a quick run on 2222, but I got carried away and was out for about 2 hours. Put together an 8 minute video here: http://vimeo.com/46595818 (hrm, need to extend the video tag to support Vimeo)

Apparently you can't play it as an embed in Facebook, either.

One thing I should mention that I don't think was covered here about DC. There are two Air and Space Museums, and they're both great, but the one out near Dulles Airport is probably the bigger attraction these days. That's the one that just added the Discovery shuttle, houses the Enola Gay, and a pretty rad SR-71 Blackbird (among many other planes). It's pretty fantastic. It's one of the few museums in the area that costs something, but it's really just a parking fee of $12 (meant to discourage people from parking there for the airport or commuting).

Anyway, if you have questions about the museums in DC (of which there are plenty and almost all free) then feel free to ask...and I'll ask my wife Or my brother in law who volunteered at the Smithsonian for a while.

Tom, I did the drive down from Lime Creek Rd out to 360 with my sister 2 months ago. There are some crazy houses with some crazy lawns down there.

I'm about two weeks out from departure on this trip. The map should be solid by next weekend, trying to find good terrain and suggested motorcycle routes for the travel time between cities.

For those who have offered a place to stay, first off, thanks again. I'll be reaching out to each of you via private messages this week with a rough schedule. The first days of the trip will likely help me set the pace for the rest of the travels.

And here we go. Departing this morning, just about packed up. Time to set the pace and see how the first part of the trip goes.

http://i.imgur.com/EBmc8.png is the rather rough map. Exact travel plans in each area will be planned out a day or so in advance. I'll keep in touch with those offering me a place more this week, once I have better estimates for each location.

WOAH! Very nice! I had no idea it was going to be that long. That's really cool.

I hope I'll have a place for you. We'll know for certain by the end of the month...

I'm not sure how long you are planning on taking, but it might be getting a little cool to ride the motorcycle up in Winnipeg if you wait too long. A few times when I was a kid Halloween was postponed because it was too cold for the kids to go out and risk exposure (this was about 280 miles SW of Winnipeg). Fun times.

I was in Northern Michigan (not the UP) two weeks ago and it got down around freeing one night. We had to build a fire to keep the house warm.

Definitely risking riding in snow. I hope you at least have one of those fancy heater jackets, and a full-face helmet.

On the plus side, you won't have to worry about grasshoppers.

Winnipeg is one of the first stops, going to try and put a lot of miles on the trip up front to outrun the cold. I'll probably know more tomorrow on my timeframe for arriving up there.

Already had a run in today with a surprise rain storm. Looked over, saw it coming and people under a shelter, then ten seconds later I was drenched. The good news, the bags on the bike are all waterproof. Sadly, the waterproof liner of the jacket was in one at the time . On the plus side, it was short, and I have some excellent video afterwards of a double rainbow over a lake.

I think we're mostly interested in the soundtrack of that double rainbow vid... Woah. All the way.

https://vimeo.com/49660790

No soundtrack, and the double rainbow wasn't really visible in the clip I chose. Going to try and get these short little videos out frequently, to stay ahead of the pile of raw footage I'm creating.

All the way across!

So intense!

What does it mean?!?!

Autotune Double Rainbow song link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX0D4oZwCsA

Shitty Flash youtube embed (Safari's YouTube5 plugin doesn't work for the forum's embed):


Tom, if you ever come across a triple rainbow, stop immediately and get it on camera.

A minor earthquake in Montreal, and now a hurricane in my path. This should be interesting.

Well at least your on a motorcycle and once the water goes down you can more easily maneuver around the overturned semi trucks and boats that happen to be on the highway.

Hopefully it will not get that bad.

It doesn’t all ways suck in the mid-west/east this time of year but it’s a 50/50 chance.